The Kadima Party Court on Wednesday will hear the petition filed by MK Elkin, objecting to the results of last week’s party primary race. According to Elkin, a Mofaz loyalist, there are discrepancies in over 70 of 115 voting stations, leading to the lost 257 votes that no one seems able to explain.

He explains that there are many problems with the fashion the election committee handled the primaries, citing that officially, the registration process was to have ended on 24 August, but in actuality, the process continued until a week before the election. He added that even then, the books were not really closed. He also questions how 46 voters appeared at polling stations when they did not appear in the party registry.

It has also been learned that the party’s charter demands that in addition to the election committee chairman, there must be six additional members on the election community, but in actuality, Kadima ran with only five additional members, a total of six, one short of the charter’s outline. Some believe this rendered the election committee invalid since it did not have a mandate to supervise the election as per the party’s bylaws.

There was also the matter of membership fees and changes in the amount one had to pay to sign up as a member. One of the candidates, Meir Sheetrit, in the weeks prior to the election expressed his opposition, explaining the party was setting the stage to facilitate fictitious voting, which appears to have been the case, at least in some voting stations.

Regarding registered voters found to also appear on the Likud Party roster, it was decided that they could vote in the election providing they sign an affidavit that they will resign from Likud by 31 July. In actuality, this was not done and therefore, possibly hundreds of votes should be disqualified.

On election day, Itzig Regev, who headed the Livni campaign in the Haifa area telephoned Justice Rivlin, stating “you failed at your job! You should step down.”

In response, Rivlin acknowledged there should have been six members of the committee, but Shuli Pinchas was appointed to another job and was never replaced. Regarding Elkin’s petition, the party’s court will rule and therefore, the decision is out of his hands. Regarding the telephone call by Regev, on the day of the election, everything was running as hoped. On the matter of voters registered with two parties, he stated their oral word that they would leave Likud was sufficient and the affidavit was not required.

“In every election there is a side that loses and feels disappointment, leading to probes. I am not too moved by this. Regarding allegations of partiality, this is insulting,” stated Rivlin.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)